This week on the blog, I thought I’d talk about inciting incidents, the latest in my writing craft series. It’s not a coincidence that I often end up blogging about things I’m trying to work out in my own writing as I look again at the beginning of my novel. What is an inciting incident? An inciting incident is the main event that kickstarts the narrative of your story. It might be your main character receives word that an unknown relative
You might already know how much I enjoy NaNoWrimo events! June is nearly over so that means July Camp NaNoWriMo is starting on Thursday, 1st July. I’ve hit my goals for my 4th historical fiction novel and I’m ready to take part! So, this week on the blog, I thought I’d tell you a bit about my project. About NaNoWriMo If you’re not familiar with the term, NaNoWriMo stands for ‘National Novel Writing Month’ and it’s an online writing challenge. Participants
This wonderful book sweeps you back in time to Regency England in this charming Pride and Prejudice variation. Mr Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet are guests at a house party thrown by mutual friends, the Kendalls. The Kendalls hope that both Elizabeth and Darcy will find suitable matches. In the true style of this beloved couple, it seems they are not suited at each other, at least at first. However, the two form a friendship over early morning walks. Could there
On the blog this week, I thought I’d talk about the Kingdom of Mercia. Mercia was one of the largest kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England. It made up much of what would today be the Midlands, but also extended into parts of Cheshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. In 600-700 AD, it would become one of the ‘big three’ kingdoms along with Northumbria and Wessex. Mercia in my Novels I’m currently writing my first draft of my 4th historical fiction novel. In it, both
This week in my writing craft series, I thought I’d talk about handwriting. Writing technology has developed a lot in the last century – even now I’m writing this blog post on my laptop, directly onto my WordPress site. However, I’m not sure I’ll ever move on from the simple joys of handwriting. I love jotting down ideas in my notebook and also writing things in my planner to organise my goals and writing progress. Here are some reasons why I
This week on the blog, I review A Girl Called Ari by P.J. Sky. This book was a fantastic read! Although I’ve enjoyed lots of fantasy reads recently, this is my first science fiction novel in quite a long time. A Girl called Ari has been on my TBR pile for a while and I was excited to finally get to it. Here’s a flavour of the book: The Plot After Starla gets abducted she wakes in the worst possible place
This week on the blog, I thought I’d update you with some author goals! I have some exciting writing news and a couple of new features I wanted to update you on. Announcement! If you read my blog last month updating you on some author goals last month, then you’ll know on March 31st I submitted my 3rd historical fiction novel to my publishers. Well, I’m thrilled to tell you that they accepted my manuscript! Last Wednesday, I officially signed the
I thought it was about time for another blog in my ‘writing craft’ series – this week, we’re thinking about plot twists. Plot twists can be a great tool for writers to hook readers. It’s great when they leave readers shocked and on the edge of their seats wanting more. However, can they ever be overdone? I was watching a series on Netflix recently – I won’t name it, as then you will expect a massive twist! The series starts out
This week on the blog, I review the wonderful book ‘The Borrowed Boy’ by Deborah Klee. I actually read this book a few weeks ago, but even after moving house and moving onto another couple of reads, this story has stayed with me. Here’s a flavour of the book: Fearing she only has a short time left to live, Angie Winkle feels she hasn’t done much with her life. However, after a chance encounter at a London Underground station, suddenly Angie
This week on the blog, I review the book ‘Heroes of the Shadow: Blue Scar Indeabinito by S.S. Frankowska. This is the author’s first novel. It’s a recent debut, published in February 2021. A flavour of the book This book is an epic portal fantasy that tells the story of Thomas, a soldier living in London. After finding a stray cat, ‘Weirdo’, Thomas unexpectedly finds himself travelling to a different, ancient world. This world is made up of 12 different races,